Outstanding Documentaries: SNL Mardi Gras Special (1977)

Yeah, yeah.  Not technically a documentary but I decided to review it here because it's so rare and because it was filmed on site at a live event where anything could go wrong and, as it turns out, it did.  Things went so wrong the showrunners decided to never attempt such a stunt again & to pretty much bury the footage of this event for decades.  I'm actually shocked they've let it leak out considering some of the non-PC content it features.  More on that in a minute.  

The "live" SNL of today (with its 5-to-7-second delay & censoring of any "naughty" bits in the Western & Mountain Time Zones) may seem exciting & impromptu but it has nothing on the show's early years.  High off their Season 1 accolades, Lorne Michaels & Co. decided to head to New Orleans to film an episode live during Mardi Gras for... some reason or other.  The episode would air during primetime on a Sunday to boot:  not exactly their usual vibe or audience.  If it went well it would be a triumph, leaving everyone talking at the water cooler on Monday morning & drawing in tons of potential new viewers.  If it failed it would be a massive (and costly) flop.  Take a guess which one it was.  You can read the full backstory on what the cast experienced during their weeklong stay in New Orleans here.  I'll focus only on the episode itself.  But to summarize: they were mobbed by manic fans & basically had to hole up in their hotels all week for safety purposes.  Kinda the same energy we get in the episode.  

The show features the usual Not Ready For Primetime Players plus some of Season 1's most popular guests:  Eric Idle, Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley), New Orleans Native Randy Newman and of course Buck Henry, 10-time host who was somehow roped into this & looks none too happy for the privilege.  But his displeasure doesn't hold a candle to his co-anchor's.  Their job was to comment on the Bacchus Parade, except it was delayed by a slight mishap:  someone was run over & killed by a float which caused the parade to come to a screeching halt.  So they had to improvise.  The entire time.  

Here's a taste of what Mrs. Curtin looked like throughout the broadcast as she struggled to hear & dealt with countless unexpected crises:

It must've really sucked to see her cast mates getting plastered & having all the "easy" skits while she was stuck at the news desk narrating the entire shitshow.  She's not an ACTUAL news anchor, after all.  Turns out she really was having a bad time according to her own account years later.  

There were some skits--both live & taped--that aired before our first noteworthy event of the night popped up.  Old timers will remember these as a feature of the show:  the camera would zoom in randomly on someone in the audience & post a "funny" caption before going to commercial.  They're usually mildly amusing at best.  Well, tonight the writers went balls-to-the-walls, apparently choosing a "Roots" theme that featured shades of Antebellum racism & bitterness toward Southerners in general.  It was almost as if they knew this special wouldn't be aired again & just said 'fuck it'.  My jaw was on the floor several times, though I actually found these captions to be the highlight of the show.  Some of the standouts:

This one popped up first.  Oof.

Blatant diss at the region you're filming in.  Cue "I'm in danger" Ralphie gif.

Someone just wanted to say "Cunt" on TV lmao.

The censors were really asleep at the switch with that last one, & the proud look on the lady's face in caption #1 just put the "Alex Haley" quote over the top.  It's clear the writers were mocking Southern racists but talk about bold!  They definitely wouldn't have the guts to pull this today, nor would viewers be able to accept it for the comedy it is & not pitch a fit.  I can see ragin' Cajuns (and other Southerners) writing the show en masse to "protest" the oh-so-offensive episode which would really be a shame.  This is why comedy as a whole is dying--nobody can laugh at themselves anymore.  But anyway.  

The next noteworthy bit was Penny Marshall's segment, which she did solo because Cindy Williams got lost in traffic... or something.  It was a debutante ball in which all the contestants were men because the club participating excluded women.  A nice reminder that sexism was alive & well in 1977.  Clearly the "models" were drag queen types--gay men who relished in wearing feminine clothing.  Nothing wrong with that, but you'd think Penny had never seen such a sight before based on her reaction.  Just see for yourself:

This was basically her face the whole time.

I honestly couldn't tell if her reaction was part of the act or if she was legit uncomfortable, but I find it hard to believe someone from the theatre world in NYC wouldn't have encountered such a thing before.  Hollywood, Broadway & the performance world in general are Ground Zero for flamboyance but she  looked TERRIFIED.  Total deer in headlights.  And it didn't get better when her pal Cindy arrived:

One of the "debutantes"

Laverne & Shirley, reporting from a dark alley in a warzone apparently.

What could've been a fun, lighthearted segment felt awkward & confusing.  Granted, there's no telling what these two uber-famous women had just endured before the cameras started rolling.  Right after Gilda Radner's segment as Emily Litella (her hard-of-hearing "old lady" character), she was jumped off-screen by a drunken man who forced his head up her skirt.  When recounting the event to her boss later, she said "This guy is so drunk, he’s going down on Emily Litella."  Yeah, that's the spirit.  Gotta turn those sexual assaults into punchlines if you wanna hang with the big boys of comedy!  The things women had to endure in those days must've been unimaginable.  Indeed, Penny Marshall refused to return to host the show until the mid-1990s after this trainwreck, so we can only imagine the effect it had on her psyche.  Maybe on second thought Jane was better off at the news desk.  

Here's a look at the madding crowd:

There were several bland musical numbers I skipped through.  One Randy Newman performance was plenty, and Paul Schaffer's "Antler Dance" song started to grate on my nerves about 3/4ths of the way through.  Poor Garrett Morris, a native New Orleans resident & professional musician who had prepared a special song for the occasion, was pushed out & given only a few minutes of airtime as per usual.  (But tell us more about how the SOUTH is racist, guys).  

By the end of the night the entire cast looked like they were on another planet.  Several planets, actually, and probably several different substances.  Tiny Gilda appeared downright sloshed during her final "Pirate" skit opposite boyfriend Bill Murray.

Who you muggin' at?  Ain't nobody over there.  😂

99 bottles of beer on the wall...

Nearly taking off her deckmate's head (note the extra ducking behind her)

Regardless, she pulled off an impressive sword fight scene with precision.  I was reminded of my own theatre days when I'd chug little bottles of Gallo wine & take hits from the gravity bong before rehearsal to make things more "interesting".  As long as you remain professional that's what counts, right?  And after what Gilda had been through that evening she earned it.  If she wasn't plastered then she plays a damn persuasive drunk pirate chick.  

When all was said & done, Lorne spent a grand total of $1 million on this venture and ratings were abysmal, losing out to a TV movie about an oversexed housewife.  Despite its historic nature, Michaels refuses to allow the episode to be aired in syndication which I think is a bit of an overreaction.  Was the show chaotic & heavy on the Randy Newman?  Yes.  It was also a truly LIVE show at the nation's biggest party, which is no small feat.  None of the cast got killed, arrested or barfed on camera.  If nothing else, it's amusing to see the young OG's perform somewhere other than Studio 8H & to get a glimpse of the Big Easy in 1977.  I found myself wondering how many of these folks are still out there telling their grandkids about that crazy February night when the Yankee comedians came to their city.  

This was SNL at its headiest & most experimental so the fact that Lorne would be ashamed to re-air this unpolished gem is a bit pathetic considering what the show has become today:  stale, pandering to advertisers and entirely predictable.  None of the stars had bodyguards or police escorts at this event which adds to the danger of it all.  There's not a celebrity in the world who would subject themselves to that now.  But that's the thing:  back then, SNL didn't hire "stars," they hired unknowns based on their dedication & raw talent.  Overall, the Mardi Gras special is far from SNL's best but nowhere near the worst of the first 5 years.  If you can find it, definitely give it a watch.  

Not to spoil the ending but that parade never showed up.  🚙🤸💃🎈🎏 🎠🎇

https://iplogger.com/1rHC15

"aRe YoU a PaReNt?'

No, genius, I'm not.  I'm not a ship captain either yet somehow I know a fucking maritime disaster when I see one.  

Young, Black and Dead

It's Black History Month.  Blink & you'll miss it.

The number of deaths in the past few years has been staggering across the board, but none more so than in the Black community.  Black folks are dying younger & from more preventable causes than any ethnic group aside from Native Americans, and COVID has only accelerated the death spiral by contributing to excess cardiovascular & pulmonary mortality.  And we can't forget the rampant police brutality that's ramped up in recent years.  Unfortunately Black stars don't always escape the early death vortex:  When it comes to public figures & celebrities, Black people account for a disproportionate number of those in contact sports like boxing, soccer and American football (which often results in CTE/premature death due to grievous injury) and Hip Hop, which is plagued with gun violence.  

Below I've listed the significant & beloved figures we've lost from 2019-2023 to a variety of causes ranging from police brutality to COVID to suicide & cancer.  I'm doing it in the hopes that they won't be forgotten in this TikTok-obsessed, 280-character limit society.  If a name sounds familiar but you can't quite place the face, Google them & see what pops up.  Or try it with a name you've never heard before.  The worst that could happen is you learn about a new interesting person.  

I'm including only people 65 & under to illustrate the abnormal number of young deaths in the Black community.  Maybe if people see them all in one place they'll be startled into action instead of the steady stream of "R.I.P legend" and "C U Wen I get there player" type posts.  Apathy = complicity in a world where many Black Americans' life spans are similar to a white man's in 1930.  Keep in mind the average life expectancy for white American men is 76.3 and for women is 81.4 years as of the time of this writing (2023).  

You don't have to be Black to care.  (I'm not).  These are your fellow Americans, your neighbors, the people your children aspire to be like.  And now they're gone, their lives cut brutally short never to draw another breath.  No matter the profession or cause of death, this is not normal & shouldn't be accepted as such.

NAME & AGE AT DEATH

(2019-2023)

Chadwick Boseman - 43

Bushwick Bill - 52

John Singleton - 51

Nipsey Hussle - 31

Elijah McClain - 23

Juice WRLD - 21

Kobe Bryant & daughter Gianna - 41 & 13

Jas Waters - 39

Naya Rivera - 33

Black Rob - 51

Diamond Lynette Hardaway - 51

George Floyd - 46

DMX - 50

Shock G - 57

Michael K. Williams - 54

Pop Smoke - 20

Tommy DeBarge - 64

DJ Kay Slay - 55

Young Dolph - 36

Coolio - 59

MF DOOM - 49

Kirsnick Khari "Takeoff" Ball  - 28

Breonna Taylor - 26

Gangsta Boo - 43

PnB Rock - 30

Cedrick Benson - 36

Ahmaud Arbery - 25

Andre Harrell - 59

Biz Markie - 57

Diane Durham - 52

Nick Gordon - 30

Adolfo "Shabba Doo" Quinones - 65

Virgil Abloh - 41

Trugoy the Dove - 54

Jesse Lemonier - 25

CJ Harris - 31

Uche Nwaneri - 38

DJ Steven tWitch Boss - 40

Jo Mersa Marley - 31

Traci Braxton - 50

Kevin Samuels - 57

Kangol Kid - 55

Leonard "Hub" Hubbard - 62

Demaryius Thomas - 33

Greg Tate - 64

Jovita Moore - 53

Anthony "A.J." Johnson - 56

Steve "Zumbi" Gaines - 49

Cameron Burrell - 26

Suzzanne Douglas - 64

Sanyika "Monster Kody" Shakur - 57

Jahmil French - 28

Prince Markie Dee - 52

Honorable mention (died same time period; over 65):  Toots Hibbert, Herman Cain, Bell Hooks, Paul Mooney, Cicely Tyson, Sidney Poitier, Toni Morrison, Elijah Cummings, Robert Mugabe, John Witherspoon, Colin Powell, Desmond Tutu, Pele, Andre Leon Talley, John Lewis 

Bob Marley Album Reviews (1976-1980)

Today is the 78th birthday of Robert Nesta, better known as Bob Marley.  I've been on a Marley kick (again) & felt the need to review his last 5 albums.  Why these?  Because they mark one of the most tumultuous, eventful periods in not only Marley's short life but reggae & music history as a whole.  During this time Marley & his wife were shot inside their home by CIA-backed assassins; he was exiled to London, made a baby with a Jamaican beauty queen, fulfilled his dream of performing in his spiritual homeland of Africa, returned to Jamaica to unite opposing political parties onstage (including one whose henchmen shot him) & died of melanoma at age 36.  Among other things.  These albums chronicle these events in subtle ways while still remaining true to his message of love, unity, revolution, Black empowerment & Rasta faith.

As I stated in a previous article, Marley was no saint in his personal life & I disagree with people who paint him as a Jesus-like figure.  I don't think he'd appreciate the idol worship or use of his likeness on so many commercial products either.  But his timeless music and commitment to maintaining a humble life of service without becoming materialistic or burned out on (hard) drugs like many other stars is noteworthy, especially in the freewheeling '70s.  

Without further ado, let the countdown begin.

RASTAMAN VIBRATION

First up is Rastaman Vibration which was already the 8th studio album under Bob's belt.  Many music critics consider this the pinnacle offering of Marley's career.  It opens with the upful "Positive Vibration" which contrasts with the fiery "War," the speech by Rasta god Haile Selassie set to music ("Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes/me say war") as well as Bob's biggest and only U.S. charting single, "Roots, Rock, Reggae".  You'll also find the line that potentially got him marked for death:  "Rasta don't work for no CIA" in "Rat Race," the angry screed against man's endless paper chase.  

This period in Bob's life was pretty positive:  he was building a worldwide following by touring outside the island of Jamaica, where he was already a household name.  The original Wailers had broken up & he replaced Bunny & Peter with the lovely vocal stylings of the I-Threes (Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt & Marcia Griffiths).  He'd even had one of his songs covered by rock superstar Eric Clapton.  But what goes up must come down as we'll soon see.

EXODUS

Next we have Exodus, Bob's 1977 album made in England.  Time magazine ranked this as the Best Album of the 20th Century while it consistently makes Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Albums of All Time list.  It contains a number of songs later found on the posthumous Legend compilation album including "Three Little Birds," "Jamming," "One Love/People Get Ready" & "Waiting in Vain" which was allegedly about Cindy Breakspeare who would have nothing to do with him until he became a well-off superstar.  (Hence the "waiting" part).  Of course he was already married with many kids by this point, a fact the former Miss World claims not to have known until his mom told her later when she was pregnant with his child.  And can't forget the title track, an upbeat 'return to Africa' march taken straight out of the Bible.  But "The Heathen" & "Guiltiness" are my picks for best songs on this album & maybe in his entire discography. 

Exodus was made during Bob's exile in London after the shooting in his Jamaica home.  Between making music & cozying up to Miss World, he played a lot of soccer.  It was during this time he discovered the melanoma skin cancer that would later claim his life due to his Rasta beliefs that amputation is off-limits.  He also hung out with the Punk crowd after hours, checking out bands like The Clash, The Damned & The Slits, several of which he name-checked in "Punky Reggae Party".  If Bob ever got in touch with his English roots, this was that time.  

KAYA

Kaya was Bob's 10th album & a continuation of the themes seen on Exodus.  The songs were recorded at the same time & have the same laid back feel.  While it was very "pop" & easier to digest than his earlier work, he was criticized by hardcore fans for a lack of message or militancy.  Indeed, the critics have a point.  "Easy Skanking" & "Kaya" are both about pot (the only weed songs in this heavy smoker's discography) while the rest are about love or the weather ("Sun Is Shining," "Misty Morning").  Many a child was named after the title track if nothing else.

Bob's head was clearly in the clouds during the recording of this album, though he would also make his grand return to Jamaica for the One Love Peace Concert during this era.  It was at this concert that he would call Prime Minister Michael Manley (Peoples National Party) & his opponent Edward Seaga (Jamaican Labour Party) to the stage to hold hands.  While this event was "a spiritual t'ing" for Bob, it was more of a photo op for the politicians, both of whom had tried for years to get the singer's endorsement.  Nobody's ever mentioned how big it was of Bob to have any dealings with them after being nearly killed by JLP assassins when the PNP made it appear he was endorsing them by playing at the Smile Jamaica concert in 1976.  In truth, both parties did Bob wrong but he put that aside to try & bring peace to his homeland.  Irie.

🇲🇼 SURVIVAL 🇪🇹

After the heady vibes of the last 2 albums, it was time to get back to business.  If Exodus was Bob subconsciously exploring his European roots, Survival sees him speaking directly to Africans.  From the album cover, which features 48 African flags, to tracks like "Zimbabwe" and "Africa Unite," Survival goes hard for Mama Africa.  The result is an album bursting with revolutionary energy.  "Survival (aka Black Survivors)" is my personal favorite from this album but "Top Ranking" isn't far behind.  In it he pleads with the "top ranking" members of Jamaica's political gangs, who had promised to call a truce after the One Love Peace Concert but failed to follow through.  And "Ambush in the Night" appears to be, at least in part, about the attempt on Marley's life.  (Funny how these "angry" songs were whitewashed right out of his legacy after death in favor of the more palatable pop tunes, innit?)

While some say Bob made this album as a response to critics panning Kaya's lovey dovey vibe, I tend to think it was deeper than that.  I suspect he knew his time was growing short & wanted to get his message out in case this was his last project.  Survival was actually meant to be part 1 of a 3-part series:  Survival, Uprising & Confrontation.  Unfortunately Bob only lived long enough to personally complete the first 2.  (Confrontation exists but is a compilation of unreleased older tracks that sound less timeless than his other work due to the production).  He was able to perform songs from this album at Zimbabwe's Independence Celebration in 1980 which was a dream fulfilled to him since Rastas consider Africa to be Zion, or heaven on Earth.  The mood got dark & tear gas was released into the crowd but the band just kept right on playing, a testament to their dedication.

UPRISING

This brings us to our last stop: Uprising.  By this point Marley had won over crowds from Germany to Brazil to Japan, becoming a bonafide World Music superstar.  But there was one demographic he'd failed to reach:  Black Americans, who were too busy bumpin' Michael Jackson, Kurtis Blow and Kool & The Gang to give him a chance.  Even British imports Queen, with their flamboyantly gay frontman, were getting more spins among Black folk with their bass-heavy single "Another One Bites the Dust" than Marley's sunny Caribbean riffs.  

Whenever Bob performed stateside his audiences were largely white.  For whatever reason, his message of African unity & Rasta livity didn't resonate--probably because the hedonism of disco & the capitalist rat race had Black people in a chokehold.  Whatever it was, it ate Bob alive.  He felt he HAD to conquer this final frontier so he scheduled several key American stops on his 1980 tour, which ended in Pittsburgh after he became too sick to continue.  He'd collapsed in Central Park a few days earlier, but not before completing a pair of New York shows that did exactly what he set out to do.  While he opened for The Commodores, he blew them out of the water & made their set look like cheap karaoke by comparison.  Many big names in U.S. pop & R&B were in attendance and he was all anyone could talk about.  The audience demanded an encore & he happily obliged.  

Uprising itself was a mixed bag, gaining varying reviews from critics.  Its contents were strongly religious/spiritual, with songs like "Zion Train" and "Forever Loving Jah" dominating.  "Could You Be Loved" was the only real radio hit but it was a big one in the UK.  By far the most haunting, impactful song was its closer: "Redemption Song," which was done acoustically with only guitar.  (The only song of this style in Bob's career).  The lyrics hinted at the fact that Bob knew he wasn't long for this world as did the unique styling of the song.  Lines like "How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?" and "Redemption songs/All I ever have" make it clear he was looking back on his life & legacy in these final months, though he never let on that he was ill until the cancer felled him in the park that day. 

It's crazy to think about where he would've gone after winning over the Black American market, and where roots reggae as a genre could've gone.  Son Stephen Marley talks about this in the sleeve of his 1999 Chant Down Babylon album which includes remixed songs featuring some of the day's biggest artists. Would it have been as big as Hip Hop, which was also in its infancy at that time?  We'll never know for sure.  The rise of Dancehall reggae in the early '80s, which is essentially rap or "toasting" over a beat, suggests music tastes were following similar trajectories on the mainland and the island, so maybe it was time for a change.  The death of other roots reggae singers like Jacob Miller, Peter Tosh & Garnett Silk put the final nail in the coffin for the Golden Era of the genre. 

The Commodores broke up shortly after their New York show with Bob.  He died on May 11th, 1981 & received a state funeral in Jamaica on May 21 at which Edward Seaga (the JLP politician who ordered his bodyguard Lester Coke to be present for Bob Marley's shooting) gave a phony speech Bob probably would've hated.  

"Never make a politician/grant you a favor

they will always want to/control you forever"    

--- "Revolution" (Natty Dread)

.  

Editor's Top song picks from Bob Marley's early career:  Send Me That Love, Hammer, Caution, I'm Still Waiting, Mr. Brown, Mellow Mood, Stand Alone, Fussin' & Fightin', Rainbow Country & There She Goes.

 

Who Caused the Fentanyl Crisis?

When I was heavily involved in the synthetic drug/research chemical game (2010-2015), there WERE no synthetic opioids being made.  Any time the topic arose, it was quickly shut down with arguments like "we don't need that kind of negative attention on our community" and "it will take about 2 minutes for someone to overdose".  Even the Chinese chemists did not involve themselves with this class of drugs.  The research chemical boards had subforums for stimulants, cannabinoids, psychedelics & benzos but NO place for discussing synthetic opioids.  In essence the grey market was regulating itself--while they could've made big profits on this highly addictive class of drugs, they refused because they didn't want to kill people & draw unwanted attention to the research chemical market.

Notice the lack of synthetic opioid subforums? (Click to expand).

And then the Obama administration twisted China's arm, convincing them to enact a ban on 116 research chemicals.  In conjunction with Operation Log Jam in 2012, this essentially shut down the U.S. research chemical market.

Around this same time in 2016, the CDC put a total stop to opioid prescribing with new guidelines that left everyone from shameless addicts to terminal cancer patients flapping in the wind, unable to access their needed medication.  A wave of suicides resulted.  Those who didn't kill themselves overwhelmingly turned to the black market to obtain illicit pills (but usually heroin because it was far cheaper than drugs like OxyContin, which sold for around $1 per milligram).  For the first time in history, the black market was having a hard time meeting the demand for heroin & other opioids due to the colossal wave of pain patients turned away from doctors' offices.  What to do?  

Of course they did what the black market always does:  find the most efficient way to meet the demand.  Enter illicit fentanyl.  Unlike the kind found on prescription pain patches & lollipops, this powdered fentanyl was produced by Chinese chemists often working in the same labs that supplied other research chemicals a couple years earlier.  Fentanyl is about 50x more potent than heroin (or 100x more potent than morphine) & requires no growing/harvesting/processing of fields of poppies, which meant less risk for smugglers & dealers who could give customers what they wanted with much less effort & risk to them.  It also meant bigger profits since fentanyl can be "stepped on" (cut) many times.  

Fittingly, the U.S. media moved on from "bath salt zombie" & "Spice/K2 craze" stories to feigned concern about this new threat.  Yet these stories have always lacked any attempt to determine WHY this drug became so prevalent or what could be done to stop it.  "Drug That Kills in Micrograms" and "One Pill Can Kill" headlines filled the airwaves, giving heavy focus to the Mexican cartels & Chinese chemists associated with this drug but again, giving ZERO attention to the FDA, DEA & Department of Homeland Security's role in causing the problem.  

And what of the pharmaceutical companies that got all those people hooked on pain pills to begin with?  They pushed highly euphoric addictive drugs like OxyContin & Dilaudid on doctors for big kickbacks, resulting in nearly 30 years of unchecked overprescribing.  Yet not one Sackler or other super wealthy pharma CEO has spent a day in prison, facing--at worst--lawsuits in civil court for causing the biggest drug crisis this country has ever known.  Meanwhile low-level dealers of drugs containing fentanyl are now being charged with murder when a customer dies of overdose.  This idiotic move has lead to predictable consequences in the form of new & more potent classes of drugs like the nitazenes & tranq dope hitting the market, the latter of which has skin rotting effects comparable to krokodil.  

Not Concerned With Solutions

Back in 2016-2017 when Tom Petty & Prince died tragically, you had to be an opioid user to end up overdosing on a fentanyl-tainted drug.  Not so today.  Now the drug is routinely found in cocaine, Ecstasy, fake Xanax, Adderall & every other street drug in North America.  The number of celebrities we've lost in this manner is sickening (R.I.P. Gangsta Boo, Lil' Peep & Shock G).  This is a legitimate crisis.  Kids who would've never touched an opioid are dying from a single "Valium" pill or line of coke.  Still, our government & media are not looking for legitimate solutions, merely continuing to demonize cartels & find new ways to try & "crack down" on smugglers & dealers while screaming about the scourge of Rainbow Fentanyl.  

Two things we know to be true:  cutting people off any medication abruptly is never a good idea.  Secondly, you can't arrest your way out of a drug epidemic: every time you ban a drug or enact a new "tough on drugs" law, a new & more deadly class of drugs pops up in its place.  The FDA, president & other agencies knew this when they banned those Chinese chemicals in 2015 & when they cut patients off their pills en masse in March 2016.  This can only mean one thing:  they don't give one flying fuck if hundreds of thousands of Americans die from adulterated drugs and are only behaving in a self-serving way that benefits the DEA & other anti-drug agencies.  They know what would stop this massacre, yet to admit it would mean admitting defeat in America's longest war--the War On Drugs.  

Legalizing, regulating & educating the public on harm reduction is the only way out of this death spiral. In just a few years, the legalization of marijuana at a statewide level pushed the cartels out of the cannabis game altogether; no more Mexican brickweed or fear of "paraquat pot".  Countries that have sane drug laws such as heroin substitution programs (Switzerland, UK) & decriminalization of all drugs like Portugal have infinitely fewer cases of addiction & overdose.  In most countries you can walk into a pharmacy & buy low-potency drugs like tramadol, Valium, codeine & dihydrocodeine without a prescription--these nations don't have a fentanyl problem.  Drug laws in the U.S. are among the strictest in the world and, whaddaya know?  We're also #1 in drug addiction and overdose in the entire world.  That's not a coincidence, it's cause & effect.  

Addiction/overdose rates for 2020, the most recent year available

When a variety of less potent drugs are unavailable, people turn to whatever IS.  And cartels/dealers are not going to waste their time with these weaker drugs that carry lower profit margins & greater risk to themselves.  The black market always goes for the most potent, addictive drugs in any class--things like meth, heroin (now fentanyl), crack, isonitazene, PCP & DMT.  In a prohibitionist society, there are no age restrictions on these black market drugs; dealers will sell to anyone with enough money to buy them.  And no educational materials are present at the point of sale... no harm reduction aids like clean needles or fentanyl test strips.  Best case scenario is you get what you paid for; worst case scenario you get an adulterated drug or meet with physical violence while attempting to buy the drug.  Addicts are forced to panhandle, steal, prostitute themselves & do other desperate/illegal things to finance their habits because of artificial price inflation of illegal drugs which doesn't exist with alcohol.  

Those problems & so many more could be solved by legalizing adult drug use & regulating the drug supply for purity.  So why is the media silent about this & other important measures like fighting homelessness & increasing access to mental healthcare in their sensational reports?  Just as the drug war was originally started on the basis of racism, it's being continued under those same pretenses.  When the government was trying to gain support for banning drugs in the early 20th Century, they linked marijuana with illegal Mexican immigrants & blamed opium for making Chinese railroad workers lazy & degenerate.  Cocaine was said to make Blacks sex-crazed rapists of white women.  It's easier to galvanize a weary public against a foreign threat & all but ensures support for their endless war on (some) drugs.  It's also racist & xenophobic as fuck and does absolutely nothing to solve the problem of addiction & overdose. 

"Chinese Opium Fiend" postcard, circa 1906

Racist articles on marijuana and Mexicans that kicked off the drug war

If When you see another pointless (or racist) scare story by mainstream media that doesn't include workable solutions to the overdose crisis, please say something.  A quick email to their editor via the "Contact Us" button or some other route is better than nothing.  Let your representatives know how you feel with a quick letter (and during election season by voting for those who denounce the drug war or withholding your vote altogether if necessary).  To sit by & do fuckall while we lose hundreds of thousands of Americans in their creative & productive prime is immoral, and what our leaders are doing is criminal.   Now Biden's CDC has removed the opioid prescription restrictions put in place in 2016, which means we're back to square one.  Meanwhile nothing tangible has changed in terms of drug laws, treatment availability, harm reduction education, affordable healthcare or other factors that would improve the addiction situation so essentially we're just starting the cycle all over again.  Some other president will come along and re-ban opioid prescribing, sending a new wave of patients to the black market with huge habits to die.

To answer the original question of who caused the fentanyl crisis:  the people & entities that profit from prohibition.  The pharmaceutical companies, President Obama, the FDA, CDC, DEA, police departments across the nation & other agencies that seek to ban certain substances while allowing other equally harmful ones to remain overly available is the answer.  Lawmakers who give a monopoly on healthcare to greedy pharmaceutical/insurance companies who have every incentive to lie about the addictive potential of their patented drugs.  You caused it and only you can get us out of it.  Please hurry, we're dying out here.

Outstanding Documentaries: Kabul: Rehab Hell (2022)

 

It's been a while since I've bawled while watching a documentary.  Like, legit broken down and sobbed with tears running down my face.  I didn't expect a film about Afghani men to be such a tear-jerker but here we are.  Kabul: Rehab Hell by ARTE Tv, the award-winning European cultural public service channel, is both enraging & heartbreaking.  It does an amazing job of highlighting the universal nature of addiction & how the drug problem is made worse by draconian policies & corrupt, sadistic governments.  

The 23-minute piece opens in the streets of Kabul with Taliban strongmen chasing down suspected addicts and forcing them at gunpoint into a van.  Apparently this is how addicts are 'treated' in Afghanistan in regions where the Taliban run things.  From there they're patted down, shaved bald & begin their cold-turkey withdrawal in a giant prison warehouse full of hundreds of other men going through the same thing.  Medical care is minimal:  heart rate & blood pressure are taken but no medication is given to ease withdrawal symptoms.  In fact clinics are so underfunded there's not even enough food for all the patients, and the blankets are infested with fleas among other horrors.  

Baker mistaken for junkie by Taliban pleads for his life

Predictably, deaths do occur under these inhumane conditions.  Heroin addicts enduring cold turkey withdrawal can become dehydrated due to vomiting and diarrhea, which also happens in American prisons.  Some of these men are in for meth addiction though, which I found interesting.  (Seriously who knew METH was a thing in the Afghani desert?).  The camera pans out to show addict camps on the side of mountains that resemble American tent cities but much smaller.  Wives, who cannot legally divorce their husbands without their consent, are interviewed about their addictions & the cost to their families.  One woman recounts how her husband stole their TV, solar panels & other belongings to sell for drugs.  Even in the conservative Muslim city of Kabul, addiction is a "family disease".  

God "willed" their deaths by withdrawal-induced dehydration? 😑

Taliban leaders claim the drug problem grew exponentially under American rule in the previous 20 years which is entirely believable.  We've all seen the photos of U.S. soldiers protecting the poppy fields.  Ironically, Afghanistan is the world's heroin capital, producing around 85% of the opium used to make the drug.  And according to the addicts, the Taliban does nothing to go after the big-time dealers or growers.  This makes sense as opium is a major cash crop for the country.  It may be fine to sell to other infidel nations but they won't be caught dead with THEIR streets being littered with filthy addicts.  

We see similar corruption here in the States as drug addicts & small-time dealers consistently get harsh sentences while families like the Sacklers spend 0 days behind bars.  The parallels are striking:  one Taliban leader even states "We're going to eradicate drugs" which sounds a LOT like our "zero tolerance" and "Drug-Free America" rhetoric.  There's never been a drug-free society on the face of this planet, but there has been endless suffering due to prohibition & brutal violence-based methods like we see here.  Keeping drugs illegal creates a lucrative black market--something governments (and shadow governments like the CIA) around the world stand to profit from even if it kills some of their citizens. I have no doubt many of our lawmakers & police would treat addicts exactly like this if they could get away with it.  In some places they already are, we just don't see it because it happens in the bowels of prisons away from public view.  In one major Oklahoma jail, 16 inmates died in 2022 alone.  

Inmates yell out the truth as a doctor tries to give an interview

The personal stories of the addicts are the most touching parts of the documentary.  Watching them tremble, cry about what they've done to their children & talk about the lack of opportunities, jobs & community ties that led to their addictions is heartrending.  And entirely relatable.  That's the biggest strength of this movie:  its portrayal of addiction as a condition that truly is universal & causes the same issues regardless of who you are or where you're from.  Many people still view it as a self-inflicted 1st world problem but this doc disabuses you of that notion almost immediately.  Unfortunately, the hateful treatment of addicts is the same worldwide too, with everyone from business owners to children shunning & bullying these people on the street.  The most horrifying detail about this whole shebang is that addicts in Kabul treatment centers must wait until a loved one comes to free them from this hellhole.  The fact that some of them have no loved ones left matters not--they're left to rot there for months or indefinitely.  

Whether you're an addict, former addict or just someone who wants to learn more about the disease of addiction & how drug prohibition hurts more people than it helps, watch Kabul: Rehab Hell.  It also gives an unpoliticized look at life under the Taliban since the U.S. pulled out in 2021.  

Addicts stay in "treatment" until a loved one takes them out.

Outstanding Documentaries: L'histoire mystérieuse du pain maudit de Pont-Saint-Esprit (2018)

 

L'histoire mystérieuse du pain maudit de Pont-Saint-Esprit, or "The Mysterious Story of the Cursed Bread of Pont-Saint-Esprit," is a very short 2018 documentary by Brut, an online media company out of Paris, France.  While the movie is in French, it's very easy to translate & can be watched with English captions turned on if you please.  The visuals--which include photography, colorful animation & old silent movie clips--are utterly entrancing & will leave you wishing this was a full-length doc.

The plot revolves around an obscure unsolved mystery:  In 1951, villagers in Pont Saint Esprit (literally "Holy Spirit Bridge") in Southern France were stricken with hallucinations, violent panic attacks & psychotic symptoms resulting in suicide and major self-harm.  To this day the cause is unknown.  For decades it was believed to be a case of ergotism caused by "cursed" bread contaminated with the parasitic fungi ergot, but now we know that may not be the full story.  Listening to the victims recount their harrowing stories is beyond intriguing.  One man states:  "I went 21 days without sleeping. My nights, I spent them counting. To murmur the word “saxophile” which rhymes absolutely with nothing, without stopping."

Ergot of rye

Yikes.  Ergotism is caused by Claviceps purpura, a fungus that grows on rye.  Symptoms include not only psychedelic hallucinations but physical atrocities like gangrene, peeling of the affected limbs or digits, seizures/convulsions and loss of affected body parts.  As many drug nerds will know, ergot is the precursor to lysergic acid diethylamide: the drug better known as LSD, which does not cause these nasty peripheral side effects.  It's also used in the production of some Parkinson's & migraine medications.

This doctor believes the Pont Saint Esprit episode was a classic case of "mal des ardents" (the burning disease), aka ergotism.   Between 150-250 people suffered severe psychotic symptoms in all, & animals that ate the bread also developed the convulsive illness.  This means the cursed loaf was almost certainly the source.  There were 5 to 7 fatalities in all, for which bread miller Maurice Maillet faced charges of manslaughter, though he was freed when tests on the flour didn't reveal any known toxin. Mercury & nitrogen trichloride were also looked at as possible causes. 

...and then there's the "other" theory.

Frank Olsen, the man who knew too much

In 2009 American journalist Hank Abarelli believed he saw a link between the story & the death of Frank Olsen, Biochemist for the CIA.  Olsen had gone to France a few months before the Pont Saint Esprit affair & began acting strangely upon his return to the U.S., when he told his wife he'd made a "terrible mistake" but didn't elaborate further.  He intended to leave his job at the CIA but died after falling out a window in New York in 1953 when he was given LSD without his consent.  Abarelli discovered a CIA document labeled "Re: Pont-Saint-Esprit and F.Olson Files. SO Span/France Operation file, inclusive Olson. Intel files. Hand carry to Belin - tell him to see to it that these are buried."  😱

In addition, the Sandoz laboratories were located only a few hundred kilometers from Pont Saint Esprit.  Sandoz is the company that manufactured pharmaceutical grade LSD for military experiments in those days.  It was the only place on Earth where LSD was being produced as it wasn't a popular recreational drug yet.  Albarelli later got access to a CIA report from 1954 about a meeting between a CIA agent and a representative of the Sandoz Chemical Company.  According to the agent, the Sandoz rep stated: "The Pont-Saint-Esprit 'secret' is that it was not the bread at all... For weeks the French tied up our laboratories with analyses of bread. It was not the grain ergot, it was a diethylamide-like compound.”  

Say WHAT?!

A Third Option?

St. Anthony's Fire (ergotism) induces fiery hallucinations

Of course that leads us to a 3rd option:  that it was neither LSD nor ergot that caused the villagers' madness but some man-made ("diethylamide-like") hallucinogen created by the CIA, or possibly a neurotoxin like mercury from the bread production line.  But with mercury you'd expect the children to have lasting or fatal effects since heavy metals are the most harmful to their developing brains.  In fact this is the opposite of what happened--it was mostly elderly folks who died & the kids who recovered first from the hallucinogenic effects.  Other cases of mass mercury poisoning such as Minamata Disease & the Iraq "Pink Death" Grain Poisoning outbreak of 1971 resulted in much higher death tolls, and lead poisoning is similarly detrimental to long-term health of survivors (particularly children).  There were also no known cases of teratogenic effects or birth defects in subsequent generations as can happen with dioxins & heavy metals like mercury. 

While metal poisoning can cause hallucinations, they are generally not as pronounced as neurological symptoms like loss of balance, narrowed visual field, burning/tingling sensations in the skin (paraesthesia), convulsions & tremor, and survivors of heavy metal poisoning are also more likely to incur lasting physical effects like hair and tooth loss and kidney damage.  The vast majority of survivors of this incident recovered fully.  So I think it's safe to rule out heavy metals. 

Whatever caused this trip was a long-acting hallucinogen, and lots of it.  

Frank Olsen was exhumed in 1994 upon request by his son Eric, who was suspicious that his death was not caused by an accidental fall.  Indeed, some strange injuries were found on his body that pointed to foul play and the possibility he was pushed out that window.  Eric Olson claims that the forensic evidence points to a known CIA assassination method included in their first manual that says:  "The most efficient accident in simple assassination is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface." The Olsen family was awarded $750,000 by the U.S. government in a wrongful death suit & received apologies from President Gerald Ford & then-CIA Director William Colby...  As close to a confession as anyone will ever get, I suppose.

Whether you believe the Pont Saint Esprit incident was caused by a bad case of food poisoning or something more sinister, L'histoire mystérieuse du pain maudit de Pont-Saint-Esprit is definitely worth checking out.  I recommend watching it at 3:00 a.m. with the lights out like I did for maximum creepy effect.